WarSclerotic

Americans’ favorable views of Israel are at 17-year high, according to a Gallup poll published Tuesday.

The vast majority of Americans, 74%, have a favorable view of Israel, the highest score recorded since 1991, when Iraq launched Scud missiles at Israel during the Gulf War.

In contrast, only 21% of Americans view the Palestinian Authority favorably.

As for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 64% of respondents said their sympathies were with Israel, while just 19% said their sympathies were with the Palestinians.

The percentage of Americans who said they did not support either side is the lowest to date, at 16%, indicating that more Americans are choosing sides in the conflict.

According to the poll, while Democrats and Independents are more sympathetic to Israel than the Palestinian Authority, at 64% and 72% respectively, Republicans account for much of the overall increase in support for Israel since 2001. Of all the Republicans polled, 84% said they held favorable views of Israel.

Gallup further noted that Americans aged 55 and older were the most likely, at 80%, to hold favorable opinions of Israel.

Americans aged 35 to 54 held slightly less favorable views of Israel, with 72% saying they viewed Israel favorably.

In what could be a cause for concern, support for Israel is the lowest among Americans aged 18 to 34, with just 31% of respondents in this age bracket saying they had a positive opinion of Israel.

Polling results were based on telephone interviews conducted between Feb. 1 and Feb. 10, 2018 among a random sample of 1,044 adults living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia with a 4% margin of error.